Or just another BUSHCO Pyramid Scam done on the backs of the meek and poor? Using OUR taxes and the sweat of cheap poor countries’ labor, Halliburton’s sub-contractors hide more abuses, money and outrages.
Blood, Sweat & Tears:
Asia’s Poor Build U.S. Bases in Iraq
Prime Projects International (PPI) of Dubai, is a major, but low-profile, subcontractor to Halliburton’s multi-billion-dollar deal with the Pentagon to provide support services to U.S. forces.
Snippets from the complete article below:
But Soliman (A Philipino) wouldn’t be making anything near the salaries– starting $80,000 a year and often topping $100,000– that Halliburton’s engineering and construction unit, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) pays to the truck drivers, construction workers, office workers, and other laborers it recruits from the United States. Instead, the 35-year-old father of two anticipated $615 a month – including overtime. For a 40-hour work week, that would be just over $3 an hour. But for the 12-hour day, seven-day week that Soliman says was standard for him and many contractor employees in Iraq, he actually earned $1.56 an hour.
The billions of missing money is filtered through many subcontractors. I cannot wait for Halliburton’s exposure to come to the light (like Enron did) even though it will probably be years from now.
Invisible Army of Cheap Labor
Tens of thousands of such TNC laborers have helped set new records for the largest civilian workforce ever hired in support of a U.S. war. They are employed through complex layers of companies working in Iraq. At the top of the pyramid-shaped system is the U.S. government which assigned over $24 billion in contracts over the last two years. Just below that layer are the prime contractors like Halliburton and Bechtel. Below them are dozens of smaller subcontracting companies– largely based in the Middle East –including PPI, First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting and Alargan Trading of Kuwait, Gulf Catering, Saudi Trading & Construction Company of Saudi Arabia. Such companies, which recruit and employ the bulk of the foreign workers in Iraq, have experienced explosive growth since the invasion of Iraq by providing labor and services to the more high-profile prime contractors.
This layered system not only cuts costs for the prime contractors, but also creates an untraceable trail of contracts that clouds the liability of companies and hinders comprehensive oversight by U.S. contract auditors.
In April, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of the U.S. Congress concluded that it is impossible to accurately estimate the total number of U.S. or foreign nationals working in Iraq.
The GAO’s investigation was prompted by concerns in Congress about insurance costs that all U.S.-funded contractors and subcontractors in are obligated by law to carry for their workers–costs which are then passed on to the government.
The Pentagon keeps no comprehensive record of TCN casualties. But the Georgia-based nonprofit, Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, estimates that TCNs make up more than 100 of the estimated 269 civilian fatalities. ( HYPERLINK (http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx)http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx) The number of unreported fatalities could be much higher, while unreported and life-altering injuries are legion.
As for living conditions, TCNs “ate outside in 140 degree heat,” she says. American contractors and U.S. troops ate at the air-conditioned Pegasus Dining Facility featuring a short-order grill, salad, pizza, sandwich and ice cream bars under the KBR logistics contract.
“TCNs had to stand in line with plates and were served something like be curry and fish heads from big old pots,” Reynolds says incredulously. “It looked like a concentration camp,”
And even when it came to basic safety, the TCNs faced a double standard. “They didn’t have personal protection equipment to wear when there was an alert,” Reynolds said. “Here we are walking around with helmets and vests because of an alert and they are just looking at us wondering what’s going on.”
So much for the building of Iraq’s infra-structure. This is Bush’s “Real democracy” at work. Just another Great Example to the “PEOPLES” of the world.
